Issues
Acoustics and buildings — Definitions and regulations

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) defines noise as "an acoustic phenomenon producing an auditory sensation considered annoying and unpleasant"; the Association française de normalisation (AFNOR) as "any unpleasant and annoying auditory sensation, any acoustic phenomenon producing this sensation"; BruitParif (Observatoire du bruit en Île-de-France) as "a complex mixture of sounds producing an auditory sensation considered annoying or dangerous".

These three definitions qualify the auditory sensation in a noisy environment as annoying, unpleasant or even dangerous.